Two women were walking down Nishi-gobangai-dori stretching through the Moto-sukiyabashi-cho

People walking along Nishi-gobangai-dori

If you look at a map, you will see that the current Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo includes eight towns from 1-chome to 8-chome. Considering the fact that Ginza was named after a place that used to be responsible for minting money, it seems as if the name Ginza has a long history dating back to the Edo period, but in reality, it is not that old. The first time the name Ginza appeared was in 1869. The name "Ginza" was created by combining Shinryogae-cho and the west side of Sanjikkenbori.

Since then, Ginza has continued to proliferate. It swallowed up smaller towns as well as relatively large towns such as Sanjikkenbori and Kobiki-cho, and it was not until 1969 that the current Ginza, consisting of 1 to 8 chome, was completed.

If you look at old maps, you can see that many small towns disappeared in the process of Ginza taking its current form, and the unique towns such as Yumi-cho, Shinsakana-cho, and Takiyama-cho that used to be in each of the 1-chome to 8-chome districts have all disappeared. This is a little disappointing. Am I the only one who thinks that names such as Yumi-cho, Shinsakana-cho and Yariya-cho are nicer than Ginza 1-chome and 2-chome? After all, Yumi-cho was a land that was given to the archer who entered Edo following Ieyasu Tokugawa, and Yariya-cho was also given to the spearman as his residence. The name Shinsakana-cho is said to have originated from the fish market that used to be located on the Yaesu river bank and moved to this area.

It's more fun to imagine the history of a town with its old name. It makes me wonder if it would not be better to return to the old name of the town. It may be a pipe dream now that the name Ginza has become a brand name.

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